END OF A YEAR s/t 7”EP

Your favorite band’s favorite band, Cohoes New York's End of a Year Self Defense Family enjoys a distinct renown within the punk community. Well-respected and critically lauded but difficult and idiosyncratic, the band has done things their way almost to a fault. Eschewing sing-alongs and easy anthems in favor of personal lyrics, End of a Year Self Defense Family stands apart from their contemporaries in punk and hardcore. Their strangely tense guitar-work framed within otherwise hook laden songs lends the band an unmistakable sound. Opting to be heavy in emotional rather than heavy in sound.

After first gaining attention through a full-length on seminal hardcore label Revelation Records, End of a Year Self Defense Family took to the 7”EP format with a rare zeal. The result was EP’s and splits from a dozen labels in half-a-dozen countries. Genuinely uninterested in genres and expectations, End of a Year Self Defense Family released these records on a wide variety of labels while touring the world over.

Building on the post everything sound they've continued to pioneer, End of a Year Self Defense Family returns to the full-length format with boundless creative energy. "You Are Beneath Me" is the band’s most focused work to date. Expanding greatly on the recent 7"EP material they’ve built their name on. Dense and anxiety-ridden, "You Are Beneath Me" approaches punk in a hyper-personal and singularly artistic manner. Not afraid to be confrontational, honest, and pure in every way. Proving that End of a Year Self Defense Family continue to be a true breath of fresh air in today's independent music world.

End of a Year started as a way to kill time for Albany musicians already involved in full-time bands. Having spent time playing "heavier" music, the initial End of a Year line-up was interested in trying something more overtly melodic.

After releasing a number of releases End of a Year caught the attention of Revelation Records, and in 2006 they released the "Sincerely" album on that label. Since the release of "Sincerely", End of a Year have released a number of 7"EPs and split 7"EPs on various labels worldwide.

Their latest release (and first on Deathwish) is a fantastic 7"EP recorded by End of a Year guitarist Andrew Duggan. Picking up where previous releases left off, the hook laden opener "Robert E. Howard" explodes with a discordant crash and bang. A fitting sonic backdrop to vocalist Patrick Kindlon's uniquely honest and poetic diatribe. This theme carries into the other two songs on the release "Gray Morrow" and "Walter Miller Jr". Collectively all three songs carry an organic ebb and flow that brings to mind the ghost of Rites Of Spring as well as other influential Revolution Summer-era DC bands.

This release features original artwork from acclaimed artist Erol Otus, illustrator of the early Dungeons & Dragons franchise.